MANAGER Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted Saints failed to find another gear in the second half as they fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Leeds United
Ralph Hasenhuttl said: “I think it was a very good first half from us but without the final goal – which was absolutely possible I think. We cannot play much better than we did for the first half. It was against a physically strong team – we were only dominating. But in the second half, you can say that very often, it is normal that the opponent had more chances. I didn’t have the feeling that we gave a lot of chances away in the second half but you could feel they had another gear that we didn’t find. It was tough, it was tight and finally we hadn’t been the team who scored after a lot of goals we scored in the past here. We have been a little bit closer to them, like the last game but still not enough.”
The hosts had a good number of chances in the opening period against Marcelo Bielsa’s side – and even hit the woodwork from a James Ward-Prowse free-kick early in the second half. But Hasenhuttl was left to ponder defeat in front of the 8,000 returning Saints fans in attendance. Patrick Bamford put Leeds in front on 73 minutes before Tyler Roberts slotted home a second in stoppage time.
